Desmond Tutu and his Children of the Light Honoured in Monaco

Truly a legend in his own time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was recently in Monaco as part of the 54th Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo.

Like every year, the Monaco TV festival has been flooded with glitz and glamour since it opened last Saturday, with an array of stars of the small screen walking the red carpet to the delight of screaming fans.

Regardless of who wins one of the coveted Golden Nymph awards on Wednesday, the big star of the 2014 edition is definitely archbishop and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Desmond Tutu who, alongside H.S.H Prince Albert II, attended the world premiere of the documentary made about his life, Children of the Light, on Sunday night last.

Narrated by the great man’s own daughter, Naomi Tutu, the film not only shows the crucial role played by the archbishop first in the fight against apartheid and then in his country’s reconciliation process, it also takes us around the globe – South Africa, Burma, East Timor, India and Peru – to see the work of five young activists who have been inspired by the example of Tutu.

“I am humbled that my life and my work can be the inspiration even one person needs to commit to making a meaningful act,” said Tutu. “As one human family, we need to create change every single day because it is each one of our small acts, added together, that truly will have the power to change the world.”

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This feature-length documentary film is part of a series about Nobel Peace prize winners – the first one is about Rigoberta Menchú-Tum of Guatemala was released in May 2012 while the next one about the Dalai Lama of Tibet is expected in December 2015 – and is produced by PeaceJam Foundation, an organization which has been promoting the involvement of young people in their communities to make the world a better place through the mentorship of 13 Nobel Peace Laureates for the last eighteen years.

On the 29th of May, it launched its One Billion Acts of Peace campaign to tackle the most important problems facing our planet and earlier on Sunday, it also held its very first PeaceJam Youth Conference in Monte-Carlo.